Yes, this one is long, but I think that it is worth it..e on, you knew it was coming! I would like to take this time to send a heartfelt thank you to Donald Sterling for his recent comments about African Americans. Yes you heard me; I’d like to thank Donald Sterling for what he said. Why? Well you are going to have to keep on reading to get to that point. Yesterday, just as the storm sirens started blurring, I was engaged in a couple of conversations regarding the impact of his comments and what the response should be. I had just sent a response where I was working out a phrase “Every mountain is created from small piles of dirt.” I sort of really like that, so I’m sure that I’ll work it into a speech and it may be a chapter title of that book that is sure to come, but I digress. I grew up in a small town; just about 15 minutes across the river from St. Louis, MO called Centreville, IL. I have very fond (and many sad) memories of my time in Centreville. Many of my family members still live there, it is where I made lifelong friends and that’s where the seeds were planted that blossomed me into the person that I am today. People often ask me why my cell phone number begins with 618 and I respond “I’ve kept that area code, because no matter where I live, I never want to forget where I’m from.” With all of its good points, Centreville is also quite isolating. There’s not a whole lot of diversity in the town, according to the latest figures it is 96.5% African American and the estimated income level is just under $30,000.00. I am further distressed that the population has dropped to an all-time low of 5,194. It’s easy to live there and not be exposed to very much diversity. Yes, you can meet and socialize with people of a different race, but hell they are poor too, so there’s not a lot of expanding and understanding of differing cultural experiences. When I was growing up, Gay people didn’t exist. Oh yeah, we knew that there were Fag’s, but no Gay people. It was the same with Asian people, we went to the China-man for our rice, but those places were run by Oriental’s. On Saturday nights we reveled in watching good old cowboy and Indian movies, where those red-guys received a good old fashion slaughtering. Then those Jews were always in the neighborhood to get the money for insurance policies. As I think back on this I know that none of it was meant to be inflammatory or discriminatory, we just didn’t know better and unfortunately too many people still don’t know better. It just makes me all the more happy that I’ve expanded my world view. A couple days ago, my nephew, Devon SickwitIt Dace was interviewed on the radio about his early years in football. The reporter asked him the standard question, what athlete was his role model when he was a kid and Devon hit it over the fence (yes, I understand that’s a baseball reference, I can’t think of a football metaphor. So there!). Devon said, “My daddy was my role model. He was always there, kept himself in good physical condition and pushed us to be the best. I didn’t need to look outside of my family for a role model.” I get tears in my eyes just typing that. What it says to me is that his daddy, my brother (Shawn), did his job. I’ve always been proud of Stephanie Harris-Dace and Shawn for the parents that that are and I can look at all of their children (Devon, Deidra Dace-Murkey, and Darryl Shawn DaceJr.) today and emphatically say, “You did a damn good job.” I know that if someone tells Devon that they don’t want him near them because he is black that it doesn’t matter, because he knows who he is and that his daddy is always with him. So here is to all of the daddy’s that are doing your job. But you are still asking “Why do you thank Donald Sterling?” I thank him for a different reason. I thank him because, maybe, just maybe we are ready to do our role in lifting up the next generation. I thank him forcing more people into the conversation about race. So many of us have been trying for so long to have these discussions, to get people to look beyond the surface, to understand that the smiles that you see on the face is not reflective of the thoughts that are in the mind. We’ve been begging you to join in, stand up, speak out and stop finding fault with those of us that try to elevate the conversation on racism, discrimination and white privilege. This isn’t the first time and this will not be the last time that something like this happens. Let’s stop ignoring it and look around you within your office space, your community and your circle of family and friends and work toward eliminating those long held beliefs. EVERY MOUNTAIN IS CREATED FROM SMALL PILES OF DIRT!!
Posted on: Tue, 29 Apr 2014 14:39:54 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015